In April, guitarist Kirk Hammett has revealed that he has “a ton of material” written for next METALLICA album in a recent interview with Australia’s Mixdown magazine.

He said: “When I was 13-14 years old, bands put out albums every year. Seriously, KISS put out an album every eight months. None of this eight years between albums.

“None of us are very comfortable with the fact it’s been so long, because that is a long time,” he continued. “We’re hoping to avoid that this time around.

“We’re in our third year since ‘Hardwired’. Maybe we can get a bit more focus and go into the studio a bit sooner. I have a ton of material. I’ve over-compensated, so I’m ready to go anytime.”

Also, METALLICA bassist Robert Trujillo said the band’s next studio album would arrive “a lot sooner than the previous two did:

“This time around, I think we’ll be able to jump on it a lot quicker and jump in the studio and start working. We’ve all vowed to get this one going sooner than later. Now, how soon? I don’t know.

“We’ve been touring non-stop. It’s been over two years now. At some point, sure, we’ll need to take a little bit of a break. It’s sort of the right thing for us to do because we’ve been going so hard.”

METALLICA‘s latest albumHardwired… to Self-Destruct debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling 291,000 album-equivalent units in its first week, of which 282,000 were pure album sales. The remaining 9,000 units comprised 34,000 song purchases and 9.3 million streams. It was the third-largest debut of the year in the US on pure sales, behind Drake‘s Views and Beyoncé‘s Lemonade.

In an interview with Ireland’s Overdrive, GHOST mastermind Tobias Forge has confirmed that he is planning on entering the studio in early 2020 to begin work on the follow-up to 2018’s Prequelle album.

He said: “I think about it all the time. But let me be very transparent here. I am indeed going into the studio where I will be beginning the work in January. We’re doing another American tour in September/October and then we’re gonna come back to Europe and that is gonna take us right up until Christmas, basically. So, after New Year’s, we are gonna have maybe one or two small things at the beginning of the year and then it’s gonna be all about the new album.

He continued: “People need to understand that I spend about five to six months in the studio. That’s not with red lights going or anything. [Laughs]. But it’s just being in that creative environment, you know? I also try to work ‘normal’ hours, because I have a family also, so, I try to work traditional hours. I like to come in on Monday morning at about 9 a.m., 10 a.m. and then I do normal stuff like have lunch and think about what’s going on, and then I wrap up for the day and head home and see my family.

“In order to make that record, it’s gonna take me about six months, and then that’s gonna take me to the summer, which we’ve already decided we’re gonna take a break a let the dust settle, and then hopefully by the end of the summer, the record will be finished.

“Unfortunately, or fortunately, depends on how you see it, the U.S. elections are happening, so bearing that in mind, it’s not the best time to release new material when people’s minds are focused on other things. I just want to make sure that when we release this new album, we have people’s attention.”

Forge added Forge that the “plan” is to complete the new album by the end of the summer of 2020, “but in the event that it’s not finished, it’s gonna be okay. I don’t want to stress the situation,” he said. “Every record I’ve done has been under some type of time restraint, even Opus Eponymous (2010); that album was on a very tight schedule. It was definitely last minute. [Laughs]. I just want to make sure that I have enough time to release the album that I’m thoroughly happy with.

When asked when he sees the new GHOST album finally being released, Forge said: “I would say by early 2021 you can expect the next chapter of the GHOST story.”

The musician pointed out he is aiming to “make a different record” from the latest GHOST effort, 2018 Prequelle, which he described as “a little ballad heavy.”

Tobias added: “I want it to feel different. If I dare to say ‘heavier,’ people think that it’s going to be Mercyful Fateall the way … but I definitely have a darker, heavier record in mind.”

GHOST‘s latest album, Prequelle, was released on 1 June 2018. The album marked the band’s strongest selling debut to date, landing at number 3 on the Billboard 200, selling 66,000 copies in its first week, with 61,000 of those being “traditional” album sales.